Making Friends

My friend at work asked me to make her a model of herself.

Her only specification was that the clay version of her should have sticky out ears. 

It's nice to make somebody you know as you can add the little things you know about them.  I gave her the designer pink flip-flops she often wears, and a motorcycle helmet as she's a biker.

I also added a little imitation moonstone necklace, as she wears one all the time. 

Lastly, in its own little box, I also made a carrot cake as her homemade carrot cake is bloody fantastic...

I do enjoy making things purely for friends or for pleasure.  This particular effort gave me a bit of grief, I dropped it twice and the leg fell off once whilst it was drying.  Jinxed perhaps?  It was all fixed and relatively sturdy by the time she got it though, I just hope it survived the motorbike journey home!

:)

 

 PS - like the new banner?  Courtesy of the very clever Bonnita Graphics.

Ding Dong the Witch is dead!

Last week I sold this pair of witch's legs...

I played around with this design initially as a playful little ornament for myself.  Mine are currently sat on my new bookshelfs in the living room...

I really liked them so made another larger pair for my shop and they sold really quickly!  I think they appealed to a lot of people's sense of humour and happy memories :) 

Why don't they show the Wizard of Oz on Christmas Day anymore? Those were the days, eh?

I think I will definitely be making some more, they make me smile whenever I see mine sitting there on the shelf :)

Fat and thin

Although essentially compatible and harmonious there are many things that Mr MudMeddling and I just don't agree on.

Ben and Jerry's for example - he likes Phish Food, blergh, I like Cookie Dough. 

He likes action films, whereas I prefer a soppy chick flick.

He likes marmite sandwiches, I mean honestly!  I like lemoncurd :)

But one major disagreement we have is about clay Santas.  Mr M says they have to be fat, he is unbudgable on the subject.  I on the other hand prefer a thin santa.

So now whenever I sculpt a fat santa I somehow find myself also making a thin one to counteract it.  So at least everyone is happy :)

My first order

My first order on Folksy came in this week.  Somebody purchased a pair of my little toadstool ornaments...

I was keen to get my packaging just right, I personally love to recieve things beautifully wrapped.  I experimented with hole punching some newspaper using my flower punch...

It proved very time consuming!  So I may have to limit this idea to small orders like this one.  But it did look really pretty as a bad of flowers for my buyer's toadstools...

I parceled everything up in a little cardboard box and made a tag to attach, then I tied it all together with jute string. I love brown paper parcels with string...

Voila!  Packaging MudMeddling style :)

I really hope she likes it!

Things that go bump in the night...

Sometimes an idea won't rest until I have done something with it...

...which is how I found myself at 11:30pm still crafting away by candlelight...ok, not candlelight, but you get the idea!

This latest spooky creation is still in need of some paint of course but I am delighted with him...

Can't wait to get started on a little troop of mummies!

More fairy magic!

With a little fairy dust, and the help of some paint of course...

A rather naked looking fairy is brought to life...

She was really very fun to make, it's always nice to have an excuse to indulge in lots of pink and gold :)  She's a little...um..bustier than I intended, but I think it adds to her charm.  I particularly like how her mossy head-dress came out, I may have to take that a bit further...I'm thinking Christmas wreaths perhaps?

Now this lady is up in my Folksy shop waiting for a new home!  Speaking of shops..I've added a couple of badges to my sidebar *points* and I am adding more items every week.  I am hoping to add a silver clay jewellery section to both shops really soon, I am really excited about that.  So far my Etsy shop contains more than my Folksy shop because, sorry to say, Etsy is a lot more user friendly and is much more of a sleek operation.  That said, there is something very delightful about the slightly clunky newness of Folksy and I really hope if finds its feet as the UK craft movement moves forward.

Rather excitingly, and very much to my surprise, my little hanging ghosts were featured on Etsy's front page today!  The Hollow Men treasury I showed you yesterday was selected for the front page today...

I promise not to go on about every treasury I am in, if I am lucky enough to be in more of course, it's just exciting to be in some for the first time so I am indulging myself :)

Fairy experiments #2

More fairy creations going on here at mudmeddling this week - a couple more fairy doors...

Unfortunately I messed these up somewhat, I rolled the clay out too thinly and they buckled slightly when they dried.  I should  have a) made the clay slightly thicker, and b) weighed them down slightly when drying the underside.  Still, a useful learning process.

And what good is a fairy door without a toadstool or two?

I can't decide if I prefer small or big spots...

But it was a lot of fun playing around with photographing them in the morning sun...

I'll definitely be making more of these to add to the shop/s so keep your eyes peeled.

More fairy experimentations tomorrow...

Fairy experiments #1

I have had little time lately to play around with my clay as much as I would like.  With my 4-year-old starting school, medical and antenatal appointments coming out of my ears, and then general work and motherhood on top of it all, sometimes my creative endeavors take the back seat.  It's not the balance I want.  Ideally my work would be my creative endeavors, but for now time and circumstance don't allow that. 

Maybe this little lady will grant me a wish?

She is an experiment - just a little idea quickly formed before I forgot it.  A little bell-like fairy with hand-painted hair and a neat little bun. 

I like her, she needs tweaking of course but she's cute and I like the style. 

More fairy experiementations to come later this week!

Fairy door painted

Yesterday I painted up my little fairy door...

Although I love seeing clay creations in their raw form, I do enjoy seeing them brought to life with a little colour.  This little door was particularly fun to do as the brown paint transformed the pattern I had made on the clay and I was really pleased with the result.

(Hmmm, funny how your floors look clean until you take a super close-up photo!)

I took a picture outside too to capture an outdoorsy situation...

This one isn't going into the shop, I struggle to part with the first creation that comes from an idea, so this particular one will find a home on a book shelf, or maybe even a skirting board...though I am not sure it'd survive a 4-year-old and a crawling baby over the next year or so...so a shelf it is :)

Now I really must go and mop that floor...

Fairy magic

Inspired by the stories my four-year-old insists I make up for her whilst she eats her dinner - which must always involve fairies, dragons, princesses and naughty witches who eventually see the errors of their ways - I constructed a little fairy door...

I was so pleased with the wood effect, made using the tip of a bent old metal skewer.  I just hope it holds out when I paint it, which I am just away to do now.  I am really looking forward to bringing this little door to life!

Spookiness

I have been happily creating some spooky things lately, inspired by the whiff of autumn just around the corner, my very favourite time of year.   I've been making rather a lot of simple little ghosts...

Each topped off with a crystal bead...

And very cute hanging from a cupboard handle...

Strangely addictive to make!  And the sole cause of my having completely run out of white paint :)

I have also been building a coven of witches...

Very fun little ladies to make whilst sitting with a cup of horlicks of an evening, my life is very rock and roll.

Opening Ceremony!

Well here I am popping the cork on a bottle of non-alcholic elderflower cordial fizz (dammit!) because, yes, I am the proud proprietor of an Etsy online shop!  AND a Folksy online shop!

*fanfare*

Announcing MudMeddling on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MudMeddling
And MudMeddling on Folksy:
http://www.folksy.com/shops/MudMeddling

Woo!  I finally bloody well did it.  I opened a shop!  That alone is satisfaction enough for me, for now.  I am realistic, I am not silly, I am fully aware that opening an online shop does not equal selling in an online shop.  I need to work on my business, nurture and grow it, learn and improve, but most of all love doing it.  As long as I love it I will do it, even if I never sell a thing :)

So want to see what's up for sale?

Some of the rather naked looking sculptures in my last post have been transformed into much more lively looking creatures...

I love how much a little bit of paint can transform things...

I set up a little photoshoot area in the garden to get some natural light and it worked quite well I think, though I still have a lot to learn where photography is concerned...

But I think the pictures came out rather well, the colours in particular are pretty true to the originals...

There are more than just Santas available though so do skip on over the either Etsy or Folksy to take a look :)  And I will of course keep you fully updated on new additions, but this blog will continue to focus more on the process and the fun of the creating, rather than just harping on about selling and shops. So there!

Now excuse me whilst I go and sip my elderflower cordial and wish it was real champagne :)

I love playing with clay

What I love about clay, aside from messy hands at the end of a lovely afternoon's sculpting, is how simple it is.  You grab a lump of the muddy stuff and an idea and away you go...

Your idea evolves depending on how well the clay is working and by the end of an hour you usually, on a good day anyway, have a creation better than the idea you started with.  Very satisfying!

At the moment I am focusing on Christmas.  Yes I am aware it's only August but I like to get ahead, and with a baby due at the beginning of December time for clay will be very limited indeed!.  

Also, I want to open a Folksy and an Etsy shop.  Yup, after yonks of wanting to have a whirl at selling some of the stuff I make I have finally decided to take the plunge!  I decided to go with clay modelling for my first foray into selling online as clay is so familiar to me, it is something I find endlessly enjoyable and which comes easily to me.  Working with clay is a very natural way for me to take an idea to the point of a finished creation.

The added advantage is that it is very de-stressing!  A piece of clay dries out relatively quickly, and if you are working on a figure you have to finish it before it dries out or it gets very difficult, if not impossible, to add more detail to it.  I can't walk away from the body of a Santa and come back two hours later to add the arms, so I have to find an hour and work through it, focusing the whole time.  This allows little room in my mind to stress about heartburn, money, work or whinging children (and husband!)

Yes it's safe to say I do love playing with clay, mud meddling as I call it :)